SEO Checklist | 48 items you must include | SEOcrawl AI

The 48 Items You Must Include in Any SEO Checklist

David Kaufmann

October 2, 2024

When creating a website's SEO strategy, it is important to carry out a detailed analysis of every single factor that could impact web optimization and positioning.

An SEO checklist may be the easiest way to perform this complete review. We suggest one that you can adapt to your project and that we structure in the following blocks:

SEO Checklist

In this article

Initial setup

First of all, we are going to configure or review the existing configuration of our website, both in analysis and monitoring platforms, as well as in our own server.

Initial SEO project configuration

1. Google Analytics

Take advantage of the Google Analytics system from the beginning, to measure a complete evolution of the visits to your website. Check that the tracking code is well inserted and that it reflects visits in real time.

In addition, you can implement the entire tracking system of goals and conversions to see the value of each visit to your website.

2. Search Console

Search Console is the indispensable tool for every SEO, with which you will have access to a complete monitoring of your website and its status in the search engine.

But if you are passionate about data and want to get the most out of the information provided by Search Console, don't stop there: with SEOcrawl you can go a step further and add vitamins to your analysis, reports and monitoring so that nothing escapes you.

3. Check different URL versions

A website can have different versions:

No errors should occur in any of them, and they all should direct to the main one, which will be the one you decide, to avoid problems of duplicate content or 404 errors, among others. Confirm that all secondary URLs direct the user to the main one by means of a 301 redirect.

4. Keyword Research

Keyword analysis sets the building blocks of any SEO strategy. With the following tasks you will be able to build a strategy with high profitability potential and a realistic growth plan.

Thanks to detailed keyword research we will be able to identify:

5. Identify main competitors

There are two ways to analyze the competition on the Internet. On the one hand, the real competition, those companies that are part of the sector in your niche, that you probably know and whose current position in the search engine you must identify.

On the other hand, those who are in the top positions in the key searches you are interested in. They may not be sectorial competition, but they are organic, so they have to be included in your objectives.

6. Identify industry leaders

It is easy to identify the leaders in a business sector; they are often well-known and international brands. It can be difficult to match them, but they can help you set a target, see what this sector is capable of offering both from a commercial and an SEO perspective and, incidentally, get some ideas that we can adapt to our own business.

7. Define the project's core keywords

The most difficult task of all is to identify our project's main keywords (core keywords) and, once determined, we must set optimization on them. This process is fundamental because the success and revenue of the business depend on them.

8. Initial photograph. Starting point

With all these parameters we can establish what is known as an “ initial photograph”. It is like a picture of the beginning of a race. What is your company's position? Has it made any progress in optimization or positioning? And has it so far surpassed any rival in the sector? Establish your starting point and, from there, set your first SEO goals.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is the optimization that is performed on everything that we control within our own project. Therefore, it is exclusively up to us to analyze and improve it whenever possible.

9. Sitemap

Make your website's indexation as fast and complete as possible with a sitemap.xml. You can do it by hand, if you have programming skills, or take advantage of various plugins that create them in one click.

10. Robots.txt

In most cases, the robots.txt file serves only to communicate to the search robot which pages are indexable on the web. A correct configuration will help you avoid crawling problems of pages with little SEO value or even potentially dangerous ones.

11. Web architecture

Currently, the optimal architecture of a website is one that has:

12. Friendly URLs

The URL is nowadays one of the most important elements in SEO on-page optimization, that is why its analysis and continuous improvement will represent a lot of effort within the strategy.

13. Titles

The Title is the title of the page that appears in the search results, when the web is shown for a specific keyword. The optimization of the title is more complex than it seems.

14. Descriptions

The descriptions of all pages obey similar rules to those of the title. Although meta descriptions are not an SEO positioning factor, they can have a decisive influence on the CTR.

15. Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs (also called “breadcrumbs”) are the navigation links present on a web page, which serve both to indicate the location to the user and to allow you to navigate between sections or previous categories.

16. ALT tags

In SEO every factor is important, and the sum of the whole is what marks which website is better optimized. That is why you should also pay attention to ALT tags, an attribute that helps both Google and users to understand the content of the image.

17. Correct hierarchy of headings

Headings are useful for the user, and also have weight in web design. By using them correctly, you will be helping both the user and Google to understand the content of the web.

18. Images

Images are graphic resources that can visually enrich a web page, but you must pay attention to their optimization.

19. Internal links

Internal link juice serves to boost the positioning of main pages. Prioritizing the main pages and designing an internal link distribution strategy is key to ensure they receive the highest possible authority.

20. Mobile Friendly

Any website must be multi-device and accessible, fast, usable, and functional from any cell phone. We can easily check it from Search Console or through the Lighthouse tool.

21. Hreflang

Hreflang tags are used to tell Google that there are different language versions of a website. They are necessary in multi-language websites and must be correctly implemented.

22. Correct use of pagination

A correct pagination is not only functional, it must also be optimized.

23. Filters

Filters can become key pieces of a website's SEO, especially in ecommerce. If you have a page where they have a place, you should try to optimize them correctly.

24. Indexing analysis

From the first day you allow indexing, you should analyze from Search Console how it evolves.

25. 404 errors

A 404 error occurs when the content or resource the user is trying to access is no longer available. You can identify broken links on your website that are leading to 404 error pages with tools.

26. Soft 404 Errors

Google mainly identifies these errors as incorrect redirects.

27. Redirects - Redirection Chains

Be careful with redirection chains, that is, redirections of other redirections.

28. Optimized and personalized 404 page

As we said before, a 404 page can be an opportunity for any error encountered by a user visiting your website.

29. Canonical

The canonical url or canonical link is the one used to avoid duplicate content. Use canonical links correctly with the structure.

30. Urls cannibalization

Cannibalization occurs when two or more urls try to rank for the same keyword.

Technical SEO

Within this section of our SEO checklist we have added some points that require more advanced knowledge, but they are a fundamental part once we have the rest of the points well optimized.

31. Rendering

With Search Console we can check if the rendering of our pages is correct.

32. Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are rich code snippets, based on Schema.org data markup, that appear prominently in search results.

33. Open Graph tags

Social networks have popularized Open Graph tags, which are used to identify which elements can be shared on these platforms.

34. Server Logs Analysis

Log analysis allows us to read what really happens on our website.

35. WPO

Web Performance Optimization basically consists of analyzing all the elements that affect the loading time of a website and optimizing them to 100% efficiency.

SEO Content

Content is king for Google and, consequently, also for its search and indexing robot. That's why you should optimize the content of all your pages as well as possible if you want to beat the competition.

36. The text is structured in paragraphs

Readability is an important SEO factor. Structure the text of your pages in paragraphs.

37. The main question is answered at the beginning

Not only is it an optimal resource in terms of information, but Google values it to the point of having created a “ position zero”.

38. Bold type is used

Bold type is still a very useful factor, since it allows the user to quickly “scan” the content.

39. Questions are answered

Google's “position zero” is also designed for pages that answer questions that users have.

40. Multimedia content is used

Without loading the weight of the web, you should take advantage of multimedia content.

41. Thin Content

The concept of Thin Content refers to low quality content, usually due to the absence of sufficient textual content.

Off page SEO

In the analysis of the SEO positioning of your website, the off page SEO responds to those influential elements that occur outside your website. However, you have many optimization options that you can take advantage of.

42. Toxic inbound links

You can take advantage of many tools to analyze inbound links to your website.

43. Is there any disavow uploaded?

By means of the disavow file that is uploaded to Google, we are indicating which of the incoming links we do not want the search engine to consider.

44. Anchor text profile

You must create a natural anchor text profile suitable for your link building strategy.

45. Natural growth of inbound links

Our link building strategy must be “natural” in the eyes of Google.

46. Checking the most used metrics (DA/PA, TF/CF, DR, UR)

In SEO positioning, some of the metrics based on the most contrasted tools worldwide are used as a reference.

47. Has the profile of competitors been analyzed?

The off page SEO comes into play in the analysis of the competitors' profile.

48. Correct distribution of links to different pages

Link building is the most important off page SEO strategy and also the most difficult.

With this complete SEO checklist, you will be able to analyze and have your website in perfect condition to climb the Google rankings. It is important to analyze each one in detail, develop the necessary corrective measures where appropriate and make a periodic review of them.